Content and copyright were hot buttons in 2012. And in keeping with those themes, the best-read technology story of the year was the tale of Fyx – a new Auckland ISP that allowed New Zealanders to access US commercial download services such as Netflix and Hulu, ordinarily blocked to those outside North America.

Fyx briefly gave us a glimpse of what life could like for those willing to pay for online content. Momentarily, we lived in a global village of consumer choice, unshackled from content agreements that are nothing about copyright, and everything about maintaining regional distribution monopolies.

Interest was intense. The story generated 60,000 page impressions, making it the most clicked-on NBR story outside of the Rich List. Clearly, there is a high level of curiosity about any developments in the area of street-legal downloads (an April 2011 piece on using iTunes US gained enough new traffic to stay in the Top 10 for a second year, helped by an update about tapping iTunes Australia). Threats to globally-distributed content, such as the US laws SOPA and PIPA, and the TPP trade deal, also rated highly.

 

Here’s the 10 tech stories that drew the most traffic: